Delhi Riots Will be Remembered for Failure to Conduct Proper Probe: Court

Delhi Riots 2020. Image for representation purpose.

(Photo: PTI)

A Delhi court on Thursday, 2 September, rapped the Delhi Police for its probe in the 2020 Delhi riots and said that the worst communal riots in the history of Delhi, since the Partition, will be remembered for the failure to conduct proper investigations.

The remarks were made by Additional Sessions Judge in Karkardooma District Courts, Vinod Yadav, while passing an order to discharge three accused in the riots, according to Bar&Bench (B&B).

"I am not able to restrain myself from observing that when history will look back at the worst communal riots since partition in Delhi, it is the failure of investigating agency to conduct proper investigation by using latest scientific methods, will surely torment the sentinels of democracy," the judge said, as quoted by B&B.

Colossal Waste of Tax-Payers' Money: Court on Delhi Riots Probes

While discharging the three accused – Shah Alam, Rashid Saifi, and Shadab – the court said that it is a "colossal wastage of the hard-earned money of tax-payers, without there being real intent of investigating the matter."

The three had been accused of the loot and vandalisation of a shop in the national capital's Chand Bagh area in February 2020, The Indian Express reported.

The court observed that even after the lapse of such a long period of investigation, the police had produced merely five witnesses in the case. Further, the court noted that the police had managed to arrest only three persons in a case wherein a mob of hundreds seems to be involved, as per the report.

The court said that the investigation "merely tried to pull the wool over the court’s eyes and nothing else."

The court also said that several accused are languishing in prisons for the past one and a half year since the police is still filing supplementary charge sheet in their cases.

(With inputs from The Indian Express and Bar&Bench)